Shannon Hale Quotes

Clearly she was expected to say something, but panic at having to speak stole the thoughts from her head.
Shannon Hale
And this is where I'll end, before I know what happens next.
Shannon Hale
Isi, I’m trying to say that you’ve been… no, you’re so, you’re–” He stopped."You are,” he said. His hand found hers, and he held her finger tightly, as though he did not dare to do any more than hold her one hand, and look at her, and breathe deeply.
Shannon Hale
It's good to cry a bit, 'cause that helps us get through the rough parts. And the winter is though, there's no doubt. But we just hang on until spring when that ache will be all but swallowed up.
Shannon Hale
It doesn't seem to matter what we think...The prince will come up here and look at us as if we're barrels in a trader's wagon. And if I'm salt pork and he doesn't care for salt pork, then there's nothing I can do.
Shannon Hale
Why was the judgement of the disapproving so valuable? Who said that their good opinions tended to be any more rational than those of generally pleasant people?
Shannon Hale
Charlotte wondered if she would have recognized the crazy much earlier if he looked more like Steve Buscemi then Mr. Medieval Hotness.
Shannon Hale
I let my head fall back, and I gazed into the Eternal Blue Sky. It was morning. Some of the sky was yellow, some the softest blue. One small cloud scuttled along. Strange how everything below can be such death and chaos and pain while above the sky is peace, sweet blue gentleness. I heard a shaman say once, the Ancestors want our souls to be like the blue sky.
Shannon Hale
Most people are genuinely good, sweetheart, and even the evil ones have some good in them. -Shannon Hale
Shannon Hale
Hey, times are tough, and thirty gold coins can do a lot of good. But I guess you wouldn't know about needing money, since you grew up like a little princ..."(Rapunzel glares)"Prin... soner. I mean, prisoner! A prisoner in a tower, such a shame, that.
Shannon Hale
In movies, we are accustomed to seeing handsome actors. It's so commonplace on the screen, large or small, that we barely note it as extraordinary. But in life, rarely do we encounter an onslaught of beauty, entire a hive of handsomeness, find ourselves awash in an ocean of attractiveness, drowning in a miasma of hotness.
Shannon Hale
But Princess Magnolia wore glass slippers on weekdays. Princess Magnolia was afraid of snails. Sunlight made Princess Magnolia sneeze. And at the moment, the Princess in Black was hog-tying a monster.
Shannon Hale
I'd thought I wanted to live free of my mundane little cage, but the world outside was feeling more and more hazardous.
Shannon Hale
..giving into despair was like eating poisonous berries to keep from feeling hungry.
Shannon Hale
To be powerful, a kiss should make a journey, be its own story--begin with hesitation, move to realization, then melt into bliss.
Shannon Hale
The woman gestured to a seat and put on a patient face. An impatient sort of patient face, like an impatient face dressing up as a patient one for Halloween.
Shannon Hale
All I've ever wanted was to be near you.
Shannon Hale
I know I would crumble if I lost you.
Shannon Hale
The first building she reached appeared to be an old barn. Only one young guard stood before its bolted door, staring at her with wide eyes, holding up his sword in defense, She heated his sword and he dropped it, his expression barely changing, as if he had been expecting that. She held up her two swords to his throat, but they were two heavy, so she dropped one and held the other with both hands. "Where are the two Bayern boys kept?" The soldier shook his head. BURN HIM, prompted the fire. The excitement of burning was simmering in her, heating her up for more action.
Shannon Hale
Don't let the inconsequential fairy tales stand in your way! You do what makes you happy, no matter what.
Shannon Hale
I didn't raise you I be good and weak. I raised you to be powerful and happy.
Shannon Hale
Reading a book is like going on a great journey. You don't know what'll happen, but something is bound to change. And for me, that change has always been good.
Shannon Hale
Sometimes it seems my identity’s a matter of opinion
Shannon Hale
We were quiet, two tiny specks glued down by gravity, peering at a universe that didn't notice us back.
Shannon Hale
I think sometimes, being silent and watching, can change a person.
Shannon Hale
The snow was too light to stay, the ground too warm to keep it. And the strange spring snow fell only in that golden moment of dawn, the turning of the page between night and day.
Shannon Hale
Ani saw herself clearly in that moment, as a face in darkness gains sudden dimensions in a flash of lightning - a young girl, a silly thing, a lapdog, a broken mare.
Shannon Hale
Briar stood, pushing up her sleeves. 'It's about to get all nonfiction in here'.
Shannon Hale
Don't beat yourself up," said Charlotte. "True love can be so easily mistaken for other things-friendship, humane concern, indigestion...
Shannon Hale
He had a dashing smile. It nearly dashed right off his face.
Shannon Hale
...first thing is that I love you. And the second thing is that as much as I honor your former profession, I don’t think your geese care much for your betrothed and I hope they hadn’t any plans on sharing our bed.
Shannon Hale
I’m sorry, my lady,” said Geric, rubbing his arm. “But I failed to force an apology out of the offending goose.
Shannon Hale
If it had been a color, it might have been green. If it had touched her ears, it might have sounded rhythmic, like the creak of a rocking chair or drone of a bee. If it had a scent, it might have been sweet and drowsy, like fresh pine on the fire.
Shannon Hale
Rin thought of the crossbow bolt. Of the whoosh and sting of wind and fire heat and the man who would have killed her. Of pushing in front of Enna. Of almost dying. Of home and Ma and being farther away than the lands in tales, and maybe never going home. Of standing by a strange tree in a faraway wood with girls who spoke the language of fire. Of a queen of Kel who wanted them dead.
Shannon Hale
A cat can make you feel well rested when you're tired or turn a rage into a calm just by sitting on your lap. His very nearness is a healing song.
Shannon Hale
I wish stories were kinder to their characters," Maddie said. "But I guess trouble is more interesting to read about.
Shannon Hale
They weren't nice words he said. He could've lived a good life and died never having made a person feel rubbed down to bones and too sad to hold together.
Shannon Hale
Maybe I got a few words wrong, but that's so near how the conversation went, I'm going to call it truth.
Shannon Hale
Life feels like fall of itself.”“'A dream within a dream.”“And I want to wake up.
Shannon Hale
Life feels like fall of itself.""'A dream within a dream.""And I want to wake up.
Shannon Hale
...even if things were broken right now. Sometimes it was the cracks that let the light in.
Shannon Hale
That year, when the trees burned the fire of late summer into their leaves and the ground mist was a ghost of the river, long and wet and cold, the aunt looked from her windows to the walls around her and imagined another winter inside them. She began to see the world as a bird sees bars, and she scratched her arms beneath her sleeves.
Shannon Hale
Miri took genuine comfort in studying Mathematics that day. She could sort numbers into two simple ideas: true and not true. Unlike numbers, words were rarely just one thing. They moved and changed, camouflaging and leaping out unexpectedly. Words were slippery and alive; words wrestled out of her grip and became something new. Words were dangerous.
Shannon Hale
Do you know the feeling you get when you are awakened in the middle of a dream? The dream story is still real and full of color, but the waking world is rushing back into your mind. And for a moment both worlds are true, and you cannot quite tell them apart.
Shannon Hale
Jane Austen had created six heroines, each quite different, and that gave Charlotte courage. There wasn't just one kind of woman to be.
Shannon Hale
Courage is feeling justly afraid and yet still doing what is right.
Shannon Hale
Courage is not fearlessness.
Shannon Hale
You don't need luck. You are powerful, clever, and fearless.
Shannon Hale
Ashlynn washed her face, put on an apron, and then opened wide the door to her shoe closet. This princess wouldn't care if she wore a burlap sack every day, so long as she had dozens of footwear choices. Today she settled on a pair of scrappy teal wedges and went to start breakfast. Even though her father's grand house came fully stocked with servants, her mother believed in good, solid, character-forming chores. After all, Ashlynn would inherit her mother's story and become the next Cinderella someday, and there would be lots of floors to mop and hearths to sweep her Happily Ever After.
Shannon Hale
No wolf falters before the bite, so strike.No hawk wavers before the dive, so swing.No sun pauses before the set, just strike.No rain delays before the fall, just swing.
Shannon Hale
Even the jerks earn some of our affection. We can be glad they're gone and yet still mourn the good parts.
Shannon Hale
Fortune-teller tea. Give it a sip!"The liquid was pink and smelled of strawberries, but when Maddie drank it, the flavor was deep and a little bitter, followed by a sudden burst of sweetness.Her father returned. "Well?" he asked."It started out as black licorice and then melted into butterscotch," she said."Oh, my girl, the tea is telling you that this is the year to keep your ear to the ground and listen for surprises. Change is coming!"Maddie's stomach was full of thoughts and her head full of butterflies. She checked her watch again. She couldn't wait for it all to begin.
Shannon Hale
Get back in my cot, girl," said Gilsa. "You're sickly."No, I'm not," said Ani.Oh, no? Well, maybe stubbornness is a sickness, did you ever think of that?
Shannon Hale
Seriously, a thirty-something woman shouldn't be daydreaming about a fictional character in a two-hundred-year-old world to the point where it interfered with her very real and much more important life and relationships. Of course she shouldn't.
Shannon Hale
And Isi always listened, never told Enna she had been foolish, never said hollow things like 'You'll be all right.' . . . Isi saw Enna's struggle and her sadness, and she understood.
Shannon Hale
My friends call me by my name.""You don't have any friends.""I don't want you to be my friend, Selia, or my servant, not now. I thought you were both. You have let me know I was wrong. So are you to treat me so. You are wrong.
Shannon Hale
When you get tired of worrying and mourning your horse and trying not to be afraid, tell me and I'll do it for you a while so you can shut your eyes and sleep peaceful.
Shannon Hale
Over there!" "Where?" Enna asked in mock panic "Do you see something?
Shannon Hale
I'm going to find whoever is responsible for me sleeping out side with outside without pillows and kick them in the shins!-Enna
Shannon Hale
But, how do you know if an ending is truly good for the characters unless you've traveled with them through every page?
Shannon Hale